Open innovation and collaboration: A systematic literature review

Abstract

The concept of open innovation was developed from a fragmented body of knowledge, with multiple levels of analysis, and little depth and theoretical specificity, presenting a lack of alignment and consolidation, and, evidencing the need for realization of knowledge in this theme. Given this, we propose this systematic review to extend the discussion on open innovation in a collaborative context, revisiting and synthesizing the research developed in this scope, identifying its main characteristics and levels of analysis. Such a review, composed of an already validated methodology, involves data collection, analysis, and synthesis. Results revealed a literature that is mostly empirical, quantitative, and has unclear limits on innovation’s characteristics. As for the levels of analysis, we observed a concentration of studies at the intraorganizational level focused on the organization’s functional aspects. When raising the gaps, we point out potential avenues for future research, which, together with the systematization, constitute the main contribution of this work.